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NORTHERN THAILAND RETREAT
December 1 – 7, 2026
Embodied Movement | Yoga | Breathwork | Mytho-Somatic Inquiry
Cole Chance – Persia Juliet – Em Smedegaard
As humans, we are prone to forgetting.
It is not a flaw but part of our nature. Attention drifts and comes back, breath leaves and returns, we lose our way and find it again and again.
Across time, cultures, and mythologies, there are stories of leaving and returning, of descent and reemergence, of worlds that unravel and are reimagined – mirroring how we move through our own lives.
The Soft Return is an invitation to honor this rhythm.
Rather than trying to stop the leaving by forcing our way back, we practice making space for it and softening into the return. By practicing meeting the natural ebbs and flows of this body, this existence – we can carve gentler and more compassionate ways to reorient toward center.
Join us this December for 6 nights in the rice fields of Northern Thailand to explore through movement, story, nature, and collective rhythms.
The
Set in the lush and verdant landscapes of Northern Thailand, we will gather for six nights and seven days for a collective unfurl.
Through embodied yoga, free movement, breathwork, meditation, mytho-somatic inquiry, nature connection, and relational practices, we will explore how to listen more closely to the nature within and around us – re-membering, re-weaving, and returning ourselves into the slipstream of life.
embodied yoga • free movement • breathwork • meditation • mytho-somatic inquiry • nature connection • thai massage • communal rhythms • temple visits • nourishing local meals
“We try hard to do good. But we should try softer.“
ANDREA GIBSON
Who It’s For
(this is not a “yoga” retreat)
This is not a yoga retreat in the traditional sense (so no experience at all required!) While embodied yoga and movement will be threads throughout our time together, they are woven alongside many other practices and modalities. The Soft Return is an experiential retreat that invites exploration from multiple angles, honoring the complexity and richness of being human. You are welcome as you are!
What To Expect
This retreat is shaped in response to the group so we’ll listen closely to what is emerging and allow the rhythm of the days to adapt to our shared field.
All offerings are optional and invitational. You can expect slow, embodied yoga and somatic movement, breathwork that supports regulation and integration, mythic and imaginal inquiry, meditation, time in nature, and spaces for integration and rest.
MALA DHARA ECO RESORT
Northern Thailand invites a natural slowing. Expansive green, wide skies, and ancient rhythms of land and culture offer a fertile ground for rest, reflection, and renewal.
We gather in the rice fields just 30 minutes outside Thailand’s culture center Chiang Mai, this off-grid space embraces living alongside nature with organic farming practices, pure foods, earthen designs, as well as making considered choices in all sourced supplies. This is one of our favorite retreat homes, where living alongside nature and nourishing food are part of the practice.
When we free the body, the heart begins to open. When the body and the heart taste freedom, the mind won’t be far behind. And when we put the psyche into motion, it will start to heal itself.”
GABRIELLE ROTH
Sample Schedule
This is the basic template we will explore from. It will change based on the day and energies.
07:30 – 09:30
Movement + meditation
09:30 – 10:30
Farm fresh meal
11:30 – 13:30
Workshop
13:30 – 16:30
Lunch, saltwater pool, naps + massage
17:00 – 19:00
Workshop, excursion or yin yoga
19:00 – 20:00
Nourishing dinner + rest
What’s Included
What’s NOT Included
Cole Chance
Cole believes deeply in the medicine of movement, the power of curiosity, and the wisdom revealed in community. She teaches in many capacities, from studios and festivals to retreats, trainings, and even prisons, weaving together flavorful asana, embodiment practices, nervous system and trauma literacy, yogic and Buddhist philosophy, and her ongoing studies in eco somatics and mytho poetics. All of it is infused with compassionate self inquiry and reverence for this wild human experience.
Her work invites students into deeper listening rather than performance. She creates spaces that honor complexity, contradiction, and the beauty of becoming. For Cole, practice is not about mastery but about relationship. To body. To story. To one another.
Em Smedegaard
Em is a Danish trained contemporary dancer and yoga teacher who has spent more than two decades exploring personal expression as a performer, choreographer, and educator. Yoga began as a tool to support her body alongside dance and gradually became a profound source of healing, growth, and connection.
She founded MEREYOGA in Viborg, Denmark, offering weekly classes, corporate trainings, and private sessions while teaching at Viborg Højskole and later joining the faculty at Aarhus Dance Education, where she also served as acting director. Now based in Helsinki, Em teaches at SAGAYOGA and ROOTS while continuing her work as a freelance choreographer.
As a teacher, Em creates spaces for presence and authenticity, encouraging movement rooted in awareness rather than performance. For her, yoga and dance are living practices that invite freedom, curiosity, and the courage to meet life as it unfolds.
Persia Juliet
Persia Juliet began practicing yoga at thirteen after her mother enrolled them both in a class, where they were promptly asked to leave for laughing too loudly during Lion’s Breath. The seed, however, had been planted. She completed her first 350 hour teacher training in 2005 and continued studying with teachers including Baron Baptiste, Les Leventhal, Ana Forrest, Sarah Powers, and Joe Fee.
She is the founder of Soma Chandra Yin, a yin teacher training rooted in the Five Element Theory of Chinese Medicine, offering both foundational and advanced trainings. Her studies also include somatic psychotherapy and conscious connected breathwork.
With more than twenty years of teaching experience, Persia is a mentor, trainer, and ritualist. Her classes weave meridians, deities, chakras, and subtle anatomy into thoughtfully sequenced practices designed to cultivate energetic harmony. While she loves a strong playlist, her deeper passion lies in mythology, Chinese medicine, and creating spaces where students feel safe to laugh, release, and soften into what is real.
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